Is Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling the best player in England?

Raheem Sterling has been in sensational form for Manchester City this season. The England international has scored seven goals and tallied seven assists for the Cityzens. His performances in Fantasy Premier League have continued to improve. Following Saturday’s 16 point FPL performance against West Ham, Sterling tops the points rankings for all fantasy players.

The winger’s points in FPL have increased the last two seasons. Following an FPL low in 2015-16 of 96 points, Sterling has excelled under manager Pep Guardiola. In 2016-17, Sterling registered 149 FPL points before netting a career-high 229 last term. Raheem Sterling could break that figure as he is just 11 goals and six assists behind his 2017-18 tallies.

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One of the most impressive stats making the rounds on social media over the weekend involved Sterling and Paris Saint-Germain star Kylian Mbappe. The Frenchman has received praise for being one of the best and brightest footballers in the world today. It is warranted, yet Sterling has scored more goals and assisted more goals since the beginning of the 2017-18 season than Mbappe.

Some are calling Sterling the best English player currently. If he isn’t the best, he is certainly one of the best and his form is proving it. Guardiola is guilty of changing Sterling’s game and improving him into a world-class player. In the same way, Guardiola turned Lionel Messi into a star at Barcelona, the manager has done the same for Sterling.

The evidence of Sterling’s play and development under Guardiola at club level can be seen in his international performances. Sterling is a shaky, misfiring player when playing for England. Yet, with Manchester City, his confidence shows and the winger rarely needs a second chance to find the back of the net.

It is the same for Messi, who has mostly struggled with Argentina on the big stage but succeeded with Barcelona throughout his career.

Sterling has been involved in more goals than any other Premier League player. Defences are having difficulty containing him and his pace is exposing full-backs around the league.

A season-high 631,071 FPL managers selected Sterling for gameweek 13. He registered 16 points, his second-best total of the season. At £11.3 million, he isn’t a player available to all FPL managers. But fantasy managers needing a points injection may want to gamble and spend the cash to sign up the Cityzen star.